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Jon CanfieldTed- some interesting points but I'm hoping you can elaborate on something you stated above. You said:
"This was done when ATC was being divested (circa 1911) and American Beauty, Piedmont,
and Sweet Caporal Cigarette production was transferred to the Durham, North Carolina plant
(Factory 42)."
What I find interesting is this... American Beauty and Piedmont were transfered to Ligget & Myers after the break up of the American Tobacco COmpany in 1911. The "new" ATC which survived after the break-up no longer had any ownership of these two brands. However, the "new" ATC retained ownership of Sweet Caporal. I have confirmed this fact in my own records, and also contacted Jim Shaw to make sure this was correct. Jim has the original dissolution papers which show this.
So, I find it interesting that production of these three brands would have been transferred to the same factory as L&M owned two of the brands and ATC owned 1 of the brands.
I actually wonder if the Sweet Caporal were overprinted before the break-up in expectation of production being switched to Factory 42 and then were packaged at a different branch without production being transferred?